Your most used Supports

Aweberman

Akin to last week's question about saved teams, I was inspired to start this thread on using supports.


In my mind, the most valuable supports tend to be the ones that give you AP at the start of the battle.

Purple: Quantum Realm is one of the best, because it will give you 5 purple AP even at rank 1.  This is great for 5* Professor X and, now, Shang-Chi.  (If you have it, rank 5 Black Widow's Batons is even better, with an 80% chance to start with 6AP.  For extra ridiculousness, find a way to equip both of them with Shang-Chi on the team.)  The Milano at rank 4 is also good, but requires a Guardian on the team.  Corvus Glaive at rank 4 requires a villain, but is a 75% chance for 3.

Yellow: Korg and Sanctum Sanctorum both give AP at rank 3 (3 for the former and 5 for the latter).  With Apocalypse on the team, getting to 7 yellow as fast as possible can be very useful.  Obviously Okoye also likes yellow, as does 5* Cyclops.  (Others I don't have include SP//DR at 3, Vintage Shield at 4, and Kimoyo Beads at 5.)

Red: There are only two that give red AP at the start: Arc Reactor (which unlocks a rank 1 but specifically requires Iron Man) and Proxima Midnight (which, like Corvus, is a rank 4 with a villain requirement, but also gives you a 75% chance for 4).

Green: Five supports grant green at the start, but I only have one: Cull Obsidian, which (like the rest of the Children of Thanos) requires rank 4 and a villain, but also yields a 75% chance for 3AP.  The others require either rank 3 (Atlantis, Yaro Root, Spider-Sense) or rank 5 (Hope Summers).

Black: Only three supports provide black, and again I only have one: The Milano, which requires a Guardian but unlocks black at rank 3.  (It's the only support that will let you start with extra in two colors: purple and black.)  The other two are The Tinkerer, which requires a villain and rank 5, but grants 5AP (though I wonder if it's actually 6 once you level it up; that's how Black Widow's Batons looked), and the last of the Children of Thanos, Ebony Maw (which conforms to the same requirements as the others.)

Blue: Nope.  None give you blue at the start.


The second-most valuable supports for me tend to be the ones that give you extra AP when you make a match.

The best of these is probably Chimichanga, which gives you +2AP when you match red at rank 2 and +2AP when you match purple at rank 4.  Sure, 3* or 4* Deadpool likes it, but I think Shang-Chi likes it best.  Of nearly equal value is Shuri's Lab, which gives the +2 on red and green, though it requires ranks 4 and 5, respectively.

The second-best of these, to my mind, is Kimoyo Beads.  Though it's limited to heroes, at rank 3 it grants +2 for blue (which, remember, doesn't have any of the first category).  Wong at rank 1 (for +1) and Web Shooters at rank 5 (for +2) are the others for blue.

Well, maybe the best of these is actually Royal Talon Fighter, which gives +2 TU AP at rank 2, extra Okoye-boosted damage at rank 3, and synergizes with Okoye to reduce power costs.

The remainder of this type are as follows: 
Red: The Dora Milaje (+2 at rank 2, Black Panther only).
Purple: Sharon Carter (+2 at rank 4, heroes only).
Team-up: Destroyer Gun (+2 at rank 4).
Strongest color: Vibranium Ore (+1 at rank 4) and The Blackbird (+1 at rank 5, X-Men only).

So there are none that will give extra yellow or black and only one that grants extra green.


Here are where I have others assigned:

Element Guns: 4* Juggernaut, mainly to increase his yellow and purple damage enough to enable him to tank over Grocket and 3* Star-Lord in easy nodes.  This support does quite a lot of cool stuff, though.

Chewie: Kitty Pryde, because at rank 1 there's a decent chance to make an attack tile when she makes a match, and that is obviously a good addition for her.

Wong: 5* Hawkeye, because not only is there the +1AP when you match blue (at rank 1), but also a good chance to remove an enemy special tile when you fire a power (at rank 2), and the ability to destroy 2AP in the enemy's strongest color when you make a match-5 (at rank 3).

Stormbreaker: 5* Thor, because there's a synergy perk that gives a you a decent chance to create extra red, green, or yellow tiles at the start of the match, which can effectively lead to extra AP at the start.

Taskmaster's Sword: Just deal extra damage to heroes (+483 at level 150) and powers deal extra damage (+1110 at level 150).

The Tinkerer: Yellowjacket, because at rank 3, his powers will do an additional 2600 damage when he's invisible.

Web-Shooters: 5* Spider-Man (Peter Parker), because the synergy perk gives you 2 free web tiles on a match-5.  It might be even better on one of the 4* Spiderverse characters.

Victorious: 5* Doom, since the synergy perk does some AOE when he heals allies.

Wasp Gauntlets: 5* Wasp, because of +171 damage (at level 100) and a decent chance to create an extra Swarm tile with a match-5.


Another category worth noting is all the supports that give you extra match damage in particular colors.  For example, I have Hulkling on Black Bolt because ... well, an extra 70 damage isn't exactly nothing.  But I'm not going to detail all of those here.  Though I will note that there are a couple that use a percentage of extra damage rather than a flat rate, which is obviously better for 5*.  They are: Ancestral Plane (for black and red, Black Panther only), Royal Talon Fighter (for yellow, heroes only), 

LavaManLee

I haven't even finished reading it yet and just want to let you know how much I appreciate this writeup.  This is a great analysis of whom to put where and why.  Very helpful!

One item I would add is that Taskmaster's Sword is great to use on the Crash of the Titans in DDQ.  As long as the opponent is a hero, it is a good way to whittle down the opponent.

KGB

You totally missed out ranking the 2 supports that give true heal: Carols Communicator and Lucky the Pizza Dog.

I have those equipped on Grocket/Polaris whom I use to clear all the pick 2 nodes in 4* PvE (in pick 3 I add in Juggs who has a different support to allow him to tank more colors).

Those are invaluable for saving health packs.

KGB

P.S. It's clear by your ranking that a lot of things changed once Shang Chi came onto the scene

Glockoma

Nice work! I could never get any traction on this subject in the Supports Forums due to the lack of traffic, so I’m happy someone has placed it where it should have gone.

On that note, I used to use BRB/Polaris/Danver5 (now Th4nos) on Challenge nodes before her nerf. Attached to BRB was an R4 Carols Communicator and to Polaris, an R3 Lucky.

Carol’s:
-55% (2) 785 protects upon battle start
-55% 2616 true heal upon match

Lucky:
-43% 682 true heal upon match
-all the other stuff

Heals on heals on heals. Better than a pre-nerf OML. Just a fun pairing that always left me at full health after the winfinite engine got started.

helix72

Really nice write up! As a firm believer in/frequent user of supports, I appreciate and agree with all of the above and would add a few things:

Avengers Tower can also give Yellow AP on Start of Battle at rank 1
Royal Talon Fighter can also give TU on Match at rank 2

When I was in 4* land, the damage boosts were very important for three reasons that are still somewhat relevant now that I'm in 5* land, though admittedly less so:

1) Changing a team's strongest color. There are some powers (most notably Valkyrie's bounty) that center around the team's strongest color, and often it wasn't the color I wanted it to be without the use of supports. This can also help defensively when the enemy (e.g. C4rol) punishes you for making matches in your strongest color and you want to be able to make those matches without a penalty. 

2) Changing who tanks what color: Often a weaker character tanks a color I want to chase when I had someone else on the team I wanted tanking more. So I could put a support on that character to keep them in front more often.

3) Maximizing damage: Many of my 4* teams centered around America Chavez, so I would use supports to maximize my team's match damage on every color as you can't predict where those crits will drop and I wanted most bang for my buck. Even now, supports that add to the crit multiplier are great for Shang and Colossus/America based teams.

Damage boosting: supports that add to a character's power's damage are mildly useful--as an example, I have Atlantis on Polaris and the extra 1451 damage gets added each time one of her passive powers triggers. If you're running a Polaris team on the SCL 10 challenge node, you're triggering her passives a lot so that extra 1451 can add up over the course of each match.

I'll also note that the Infinity Stones weren't mentioned, and some have some amazing perks, but as most of us (myself included) are unlikely to ever see one unless they run an Infinity Stone Puzzle Gauntlet, I understand leaving them out.

Aweberman

Hah! The Infinity Stones. Yeah, I didn’t intentionally leave them out; they just occupy no mind space for me. 

But they are awesome. Probably. 

Glockoma

Aweberman said:

…they just occupy no mind space for me…

Haha, I see what you did there

I only have one (Mind Stone) and can indeed attest to their power; Mine is likely the lowest of all.

Another note being alluded to, some of these powers offered by supports can be further expressed by power boosters like Okoye and Apoc. 

Victorious: This support I have reported as being bugged in the past and only equip it to GED For his synergy perk of applying damage when he heals (roughly 1700 team damage). Meant for a nice pop off of using his yellow which secondarily applies a burst heal, I team him with Okoye which of course can heal herself. And wouldn’t you know it, the game cannot discern the difference as she will proc his synergy support team damage off of her own Yellow heal. Yes, it is a boosted hit to boot. Only seems to work the first time in match however.

Corvus Glaive: This support as a funny little perk that unique to the rest of the Children of Thanos support bunch and any other for that matter. This guy has a percentage of fortification and doing a small amount of damage. I once thought this skill was broken as I noticed that I didn’t have a fortification occur but would still proc damage. Turns out it is an “and/or” situation and not an “if this than that” occurrence that offers a chance to do both or one of fortifying/damage at the start of the turn. Currently 17% at Rank 4.

That’s all I can remember off the top of my head. Used to do a lot of research on this, it’s still a pretty much untapped resource that can continue to decrease PVE times with some clever pairings.

Daredevil217

It’s hard to rank supports as they are so tied to the characters/teams you run. If you have a high level Okoye and run her for all your PVE teams, RTF is the best support in the game. If you’re a 4* player who doesn’t even have her rostered, tons of other supports are better. It really all depends.

I personally don’t run a ton of teams. But the teams I run are hugely bolstered by supports.  I guess here’s how I’d rank the supports I was extremely lucky enough to get. 

1. Royal Talon Fighter (Rank 5)
- Equipped to: Okoye

My Okoye is not “high level”, but this is still the best support for my play. 40% chance to get 2 extra TU AP on a TU match helps fuel her black.  A 16% yellow match damage bump makes it her strongest color and the color you get +4 of from Valkyrie’s bounty tile if you run them together. 21% more health to absorb big hits and a 20% chance to fire a free AOE (boosted by Okoye’s team-ups) when she fires a power. And her powers get 1 AP cheaper if she has 5 TU and 2 AP cheaper If she has 10. Not very versatile but a straight beast on Okoye


2. Chimichanga (Rank 4)
- Equipped to: Shang-Chi

33.57% chance to get +2 red AP on a red match and 38.37% for +2 purple AP on a purple match. I like these types of supports better than beginning of the match procs because there are more opportunities to trigger and over time I feel you collect more AP 


3. Vibranium Ore (Rank 5)
Equipped to: Thor (5*)

This does a lot of cool things but the most important is a 40% chance for +2 AP in the team’s strongest color when you match that color. This is probably the most versatile AP-collector which makes it arguably the most underrated support. It’s the only one I’m aware of that gathers AP regardless of if the supported character is the one who makes the match. So if I pair Thor with Apoc I get +2 black when he matches.  I pair with Okoye and get +2 yellow when she matches. And Shang (who I mainly use Thor with) gets +2 red when he matches. All depends on what the strongest color is, but Thor doesn’t need to be the one matching it. 

4. SP//DR (Rank 5)
Equipped to: The Hulk (Immortal)

Since Hulk is attached to Okoye in PVE, this really is to support her. 80% chance to net 6 yellow at match start is huge. Also, 50% chance to team heal on a match 5 is good for my squishy green zombie who I like to keep alive to keep yellow my strongest color.


5. Quantum Realm (Rank 3)
Equipped to: Cyclops (5*)

This character and support are both all about helping Shang-Chi along. 47% chance to start with 5 purple means that with boosts you can drop that first crit on turn one about half the time (though I like to wait until I’ve built some combo points if I can so I get more charged tiles when I cast it). 


6. Destroyer Gun (Rank 5)
Equipped to: 5* Essential

Often times the 5E is god-boosted to the point that they tank team-up over Okoye. This support allows me to still run a Hulkoye team moderately well in the 5E node as I have a 45% chance to get +2 team-up AP on a team-up match (even better than the RTF). Now, I’ll still lose one due to Okoye not being in front, but  this is still a huge support to stop the bleeding when the 5E tanks.  


7. Sanctum Sanctorum (Rank 3)
Equipped to: Valkyrie

Valkyrie is my pick 3 partner for Hulkoye so this is yet another support for Okoye. This gives a 54% chance of starting with another 5 yellow. So a total of 11 if both this and SP//DR Proc. 

8. Kimoyo Beads (Rank 4)
Equipped to: Kitty Pryde (5*)

Every once in awhile I think Gritty/Polaris are a better play than Hulkoye/Valk. Usually against a single enemy or when the opponent spams specials on green. Kimoyo makes Kitty tank blue over the squishy Polaris. And it gives an extra blue AP when matching blue 34% of the time. It doesn’t seem like much but it comes through clutch often. Especially since you are often stunning the opponent after 2 blue matches instead of 3. 

9. Atlantis (Rank 4)
Equipped to: Polaris

Before Shang-Chi, Polaris/ BRB/ Than4s were my go to winfinite challenge node team. So 67% chance for +6 green at match start was huge to get that started.  This isn’t as important nowadays, but the green can still be used by Rocket and the extra 1400 damage tacked onto all the passive stuff she does is not nothing.


10. Carol’s Communicator (Rank 4)
Equipped to: Rocket and Groot (4*)

On my “B Team” (Rocket/ Polaris / Kitty) Rocket tanks green, so this is a nice way to heal up the squishy Raccoon in the event that I have him take a hit for Kitty (54% chance to heal 2600 when you match a friendly special). He also has a 55% chance to drop two protects at match start, which is helpful for Kitty.  

Honorable mentions:

Proxima Midnight (4*) Equipped to Apocalypse. 62% chance to start with three red. Better than nothing? He used to have Chimi before SC stole it. 

Yaro Root (3*) Equipped to Beta Ray Bill. 53% chance to start with 5 green. Mostly unused since I’ve moved away from the Polaris winifinite but still a great support coupled with Atlantis if we ever get a broken green ability. 

TheEyeDoctorsWife

I think I asked someone to do this a month ago. I appreciate your time and effort immensely on this topic. I love how it’s categorized as well . Well played . 

DAZ0273

I always forget about Supports and almost certainly have them on the wrong characters so will take a good look at this next time I play to optimise. Thanks!